There are many places of worship in the world with a dramatic and even tragic history. And the longer their "biography", the more legends, myths, mystics and rumors around them …
The horrors of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
The Alexander Nevsky Lavra is a monastery founded in honor of the victory of Prince Alexander of Novgorod over the Swedes in 1240 and received the nickname Nevsky for this. In 1547, Alexander Nevsky was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. In Soviet times, the cancer with the relics of the saint, once transferred to the Lavra, was opened and desecrated. However, they did not dare to completely destroy the relics. In 1989 they were returned to the monastery, where they remain today. The Lavra is also famous for the fact that many prominent figures of the Russian state, as well as famous composers, writers and poets, are buried on its territory.
The monastery was built on the site where in ancient times there was a pagan temple, which gave the basis for its mysticism. They say that it is still dangerous to stay here for a long time: in the cemetery you can meet the most terrible inhabitants of the other world. For example, they talk about a drunken gravedigger, who at dusk is easily confused with a living person. Swaying like a drunk, the ghostly creature seems to float between the graves. A ghost demands vodka from a late passer-by, and he cuts the one who refuses him with a shovel.
Another guest from the grave appears here only on the darkest night and frightens passers-by with a terrible howl. It is believed to be the ghost of a deceased cemetery guard.
They also talk about the monk Procopius, who once used people to heal, and he brewed his medicine from toads and bones of the dead. His godless craft ended after Satan himself appeared to him, offering immortality in exchange for his soul, with which this inveterate sinner immediately agreed. To perform the ritual, he tricked a street girl into the cemetery and, tying her to a cross, first gouged out her eyes, and then sucked out the blood. But already in the morning Procopius himself was found decomposed almost to the bone, covered with a layer of grave worms. They say that one leg of the dead man became a cat's, after which, in the dark, they began to see a black cat with a gray beard, which often rushed at passers-by to drink their blood.
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Secrets of St. Isaac's Cathedral
Isaac's Cathedral is the largest Orthodox church, one of the symbols of the city. It was built in 1818-1858 and became the fourth temple in honor of St. Isaac. The first "Isaac" churches were built here, but hastily and without due diligence, so the authorities decided to spend money to build a large and reliable church that would accommodate as many worshipers as possible and at the same time would become a decoration of the city. Of the several projects presented, Alexander I chose a sketch of a young and unknown French architect Montferrand, who had no practice of building such structures before. Nevertheless, with some amendments by the sovereign, this project became the main one, and a commission of local architects was created to eliminate minor shortcomings. When creating the cathedral, new technical solutions and finds were introduced for the first time. This, in particular, concerned a light all-metal dome, the use of railways to deliver heavy granite monoliths to the site, and the widespread use in the interior of the then newly discovered electroplating.
Unfortunately, the construction of this outstanding structure was accompanied by a huge number of human casualties, since there was no safety technique, and the life of the serfs was worthless. So, during the fire gilding of the domes of the cathedral, 60 craftsmen were poisoned with mercury vapor, and then died. And out of almost 500 thousand working people participating in the construction of the temple, about 100 thousand died from accidents and diseases, that is, a fifth of all builders. As a result, the cathedral was not only a monument to the highest”. necks for that time, construction techniques, but also a kind of tombstone for all the dead …
Any religious building of this scale is not complete without legends and various exaggerations, and St. Isaac's Cathedral is no exception. For example, there was a belief that the chief architect Opost Montferrand was predicted that he would live only while the cathedral was being built. Indeed, exactly one month after the completion of the construction of the temple, which became the main thing in the life of the architect, Montferrand died. Another prediction foreshadowed the fall of the Romanov house, as soon as the forests were removed from the cathedral. Despite the fact that the temple was recognized as operating in 1858, the work on its decoration continued for almost half a century. The last forests from the cathedral were removed only in 1916 - just before the abdication of Nicholas II and the fall of the autocracy.
Invulnerable
The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood on the banks of the Griboyedov Canal was built in memory of the fatal wound of Emperor Alexander II by terrorists. The autocrat had excellent health, was never afraid of anything, including revolutionaries who attempted on his life, whom he regretfully called "unfortunate people." People's Will hunted for Alexander II like a wild beast. And after the sixth attempt on his life, the sovereign turned to the famous Parisian fortune teller, who predicted that there would be eight attempts on his life, and the last one would bring him death. This prophecy was not the first or the only one. Even at the birth of the future monarch, the Moscow holy fool Fyodor clucked in the squares that “Alexander the Second will be mighty, glorious and strong, but he will die in red boots” (his legs were really blown off during the last attempt on his life). The very same holy fool, who expressed seditious thoughts, tried to isolate just in case. But even earlier, a similar prophecy sounded from the lips of the monk Abel, although it was then known only to Emperor Paul I.
After the tragic death of the Tsar-Liberator and the construction of the temple, various mystical stories began to spread among the people. So, for example, they said that in the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood you can hear the groans of the murdered emperor, and along the Catherine Canal in the evenings the shadow of Sophia Perovskaya, the main figure of that conspiracy, slides. It was believed that the temple in some miraculous way protects the inhabitants of St. Petersburg from various troubles and is itself invulnerable. But, despite the incredible beauty of the Savior on Spilled Blood, under Soviet rule, repeated attempts were made to demolish it. Even on the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it was decided to destroy this monument to tsarism, and only the outbreak of the war pushed these plans aside. And during the years of the blockade, all the shells and bombs mysteriously flew past the walls of the cathedral, without causing any harm. Since 1970, the temple has been in the scaffolding for a long time. The legend that existed at that time that the forests would be removed only when the Soviet regime collapsed was confirmed: they were removed in August 1991 …
Journal: Steps of the Oracle # 2. Author: Arkady Vyatkin